


96,000 Hours

by loonyloopyluna



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, adventures in writing sadfic, character death but it's offscreen, mostly introspection tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-09 22:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8915560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loonyloopyluna/pseuds/loonyloopyluna
Summary: 96,000. A small number, when you remove any meaning from it. But it's all they had.





	

Marinette concentrated on counting. They’d known each other for four thousand days. So that made it–-almost eleven years? How many minutes was that, exactly? How many hours? How long had they had each other? Would that number ever grow again?

Out of all the things that could bring Adrien down, she never thought it would be something so… ordinary. After all the danger they faced, after all they’d been through, and all it took was a distracted driver.

Marinette hated irony.

Eleven years, more or less. So much had happened since those first days. Since she fell out of the sky right into him. Since he tried to get the gum off her seat. They’d met each other twice. Neither first impression was perfect, but then, perfection cracks with age.

_You two are made for each other,_ Master Fu had told her, once. She was 18, and angry, because she has just realized how deep her feelings for her partner were, just as he had suddenly realized a crush on one of his best friends. Tension had laced like lightning through every exchange they shared, until one day it exploded. Angry and hurt, she went to her mentor; she wasn’t desperate enough to need relationship advice from a 200-year-old, she said, but he knew about the world, he’d lived through so much, and he’d seen heroes fight before, hadn’t he? He told her that problems were often simpler than they seemed, and she scoffed.

_Not this one._

That one, though. Marinette laughed to think of it, even now. She had been getting ready to argue back at Master Fu, when someone knocked at the door, and he gave her a sly look and said, _come in, Chat Noir._ And Adrien walked in. Tikki and Wayzz had been sitting together, out in the open, drinking tea out of thimbles. There was no hiding. Marinette had sniffed and twisted her hands together and tried to avoid his eyes, but Master Fu bowed out, forcing them to talk it out or suffer in silence. Later, they walked out, holding hands, and he bid them farewell, saying, _I know you will always make it through. You are complements, like yin and yang. You two are made for each other. Soulmates, some would say. Strong on your own, but better together. You must not let your differences interfere with your duties._

As time went on, she began to think of him more and more as her soulmate. He would pull that line when he was being insufferable–- _come on, Buginette, you could never get rid of me. I’m your soulmate!_ –-but she knew the feeling was mutual. He was more than just her partner, her best friend, the love of her life, her husband.

The doctors had removed all his jewelry and given it to her for safekeeping. She cradled his miraculous in one hand and his wedding band in the other. Inside her jacket, two small, warm bodies pressed up against her side, for as much their comfort as hers.

She knew for certain that they were soulmates, now. She could feel part of her soul dying and knew it was the part that belonged to him.

They’d known each other for eleven years. They’d gotten married young, but it didn’t feel rushed; just right. Other people cooed when they heard the watered-down story; a fairy tale, with teenaged sweethearts growing into the perfect, loving couple.

He’d been there even when he hadn’t been; when distance kept them apart, when time zones differed drastically, she still knew he was there. She tried to do the same.

_But she couldn’t be there for him now._

Marinette had tried to go in. He was in the operating room, he had lost a lot of blood, the doctors understood she was his wife, but could she please wait outside? They would bring her news. They gave her pitying looks as they passed through. No news, though. No news is good news, right?

Marinette’s attention shifted from one ring to the other. It glinted silver and unassuming under the fluorescent lights, as though it knew a disguise was needed in that moment. As much as she knew she had to keep it safe, for all it had done, she wanted to chuck it into the Seine and run to Adrien’s side. The miraculous was nothing but bad luck. That’s what it was good for. That’s what it did. That’s what it had done.

Bad luck like getting hit by a bus with your face on it.

Her earrings weren’t much better. They were supposed to be good luck, sure, but a genie’s definition of good luck. Good luck when it’s most inconvenient.

Good luck like being on the bus when it hits your husband, so you know right away.

Marinette hated irony.

* * *

A week later. The red of her suit felt garish and bright against her skin; she’d been wearing nothing but black lately. But a villain was at large in the city, and, like a good superhero, she had to go.

She wasn’t in the mood to be nice about it.

Ladybug touched down on the top of the Louvre pyramid, slamming so hard the glass shuddered and groaned and seemed to nearly give way. The thief turned his head, but before he could even see what was happening, she had him entwined in her yo-yo. She leaped down and plucked the stolen object from his grasp, not even bothering to see what it was as she tossed it aside to the policemen closing in. An officer approached with handcuffs.

“Where’s Chat Noir?”

She knew the question would come. She didn’t know who asked, didn’t care. Turning away from the crowd, she threw her yo-yo, latching it onto a far-off streetlight. “He died,” she said shortly.

She flew away. The wind stung her eyes and sent tears streaming down her face.

**Author's Note:**

> another one from tumblr [ x ](http://chatchevalier.tumblr.com/post/153739690676/96000-hours)


End file.
